Andrew Gross: Islanders need Cal Ritchie to be himself, not Mathew Barzal
Islanders center Cal Ritchie faces off against Columbus Blue Jackets center Adam Fantilli at UBS Arena on Nov. 2, 2025. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Cal Ritchie’s progression entering his second full season as an NHL player is of huge importance to the Islanders’ present and future. But he can’t be asked to be Mathew Barzal, even if Ritchie’s playmaking and production are sorely needed to offset the elite-skating Barzal’s expected early-season absence.
By all training camp accounts, Ritchie has shown increased strength and confidence and is comfortable centering the second line and playing on the first power-play unit.
Those were expected to be Barzal’s spots before the Islanders announced this past Wednesday he would not skate for two weeks because of inflammation of his left knee stemming from the kneecap injury that forced him to undergo surgery and miss the final 31 games of 2024-25. His availability for the regular-season opener in Toronto on Sept. 30 is doubtful and the Islanders had no update on a timeline for Barzal on Monday.
It would be easy, then, to transfer whatever projections there were for Barzal onto Ritchie’s ledger as the Islanders try to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2024 and win a postseason series for the first time since 2021.
Easy and wrong, said coach Pete DeBoer.
“That’s a lot to hang on him at this point in his career and I don’t want to do that,” DeBoer said. “He’s an exciting young player with a really high ceiling that we’re glimpsing now. But he’s not replacing Mat Barzal at this point. If he’s out, we’re going to have to do it by committee and everyone is going to have to roll their sleeves up and do that. I’m excited about working with Ritchie and I’m excited about where his potential can go. But that wouldn’t be filling Barzal’s shoes if Barzal is out.”
Ritchie is expected to center Brayden Schenn and Matias Maccelli as part of an NHL-laden lineup for Tuesday night’s preseason match against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. He logged 19:22 — a high among forwards — with an assist as the Islanders lost, 2-1, to the Devils on Sunday at the Prudential Center in their preseason opener as he centered Ondrej Palat and prospect Victor Eklund on the top line.
Barzal will likely rejoin Ritchie and Schenn — they finished last season together — once healthy.
It’s been impossible for Ritchie, selected 27th overall in 2023, to avoid lofty comparisons since being acquired from the Avalanche on March 6, 2025, as part of the deal that sent former second-line center Brock Nelson — the Islanders’ leading goal scorer in five straight seasons from 2019-24 — to Colorado.
He was cast as a Nelson replacement. Now he’s being cast as a Barzal replacement.
No, he is Cal Ritchie, and more is expected of him after notching 13 goals and 17 assists in 65 games as a rookie.
“He worked hard this summer, he looks great out there,” captain Bo Horvat told Newsday. “I think he’s a lot faster than people give him credit for. I think his speed is going to continue to get faster.”
“I think he looks a lot stronger this year,” fellow top-six forward Kyle Palmieri told Newsday. “I think his confidence grew as the season went on last year. He was getting ice time. As a young guy, having the opportunity to learn on the fly is big.”
Ritchie is 6-3, 196, pounds and while nobody will ever confuse his skating with Barzal’s, he also moves around the ice smoothly and is able to create time and space against opponents for both himself and his teammates.
“I just feel stronger,” Ritchie told Newsday after Sunday’s match. “There were times throughout the game where I was able to work through checks a little bit better. My legs felt stronger and I feel a bit faster. That’s stuff that I want to continue to work on.”
He is still 21 and last year at this time did not make the final cut out of training camp, instead starting the season in the AHL. The Islanders trimmed their training camp roster for the first time on Monday, assigning defenseman Vladimir Dravecky, goalie Burke Hood and forwards Tomas Poletin and Luca Romano back to their junior hockey clubs.
Ritchie, of course, is in no roster danger. But he’s not far removed from juniors, having played his fourth and final Ontario Hockey League season with Oshawa in 2024-25.
“I think up until this past summer he still trained like a junior player and relied on a lot of his natural abilities,” DeBoer said. “He’s a big-bodied kid but I don’t think he had really trained like an NHL player until this summer and that was the goal.”
Not because the Islanders need him to be their next Mathew Barzal or Brock Nelson. They just need him to be the best version of Cal Ritchie.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
